As we told you at the end of the month, Playfish’s newest game is Pirates Ahoy!, and while the game wasn’t available to play a week ago, it has now officially launched in beta on Facebook.

As we speculated in our preview post, the game is a twist on the Treasure Isle mechanic, that will see you not only digging up treasure on various maps by searching tiles individually, and decorating a home island, but also fighting monsters, among other new tasks.

As you begin the game, you’ll be taught that the easiest way to find new treasure maps is to do battle with monsters in the ocean. After defeating your first enemy, a large purple octopus, you’ll be given an island to explore, where you’ll learn that use of coins, energy, and gems. Coins and energy work as you’d expect (you spend energy to dig), while Gems work a bit differently than in Treasure Isle.

Here, the treasures you dig out of the ground will be in a pretty sore condition, and you’ll have to use specific amounts of seven different gems and/or metals in order to restore them to their former glory.

As you complete treasure maps, you’ll earn coin bonuses, and to find more maps, you’ll be able to navigate the world in your customizable ship. That is, rather than simply clicking on pages in a treasure map listing, you’ll be able to click and watch your pirate ship actively move through the water, where you’ll come across monsters to do battle with (simply click on them and wait for the victor to be decided), among other visual treats.

Back on your home island, you can use your treasures as decorations, and you can build Workshops that will earn you coins throughout the day, that is, if you’ve told them to start a building project (think growing crops in FarmVille, or fulfilling a contract in Social City, as examples).

Pirates Ahoy may contain a lot of elements seen in other treasure hunting games on Facebook, but it definitely isn’t a clone. If you’d like to see what else awaits you on the high seas, head over to the game’s page on Facebook. Before you go, though, check out our Frisky Hands-On of the game below, to see what to expect from the game’s first few levels.